Obstacles
by esmecarter92
Summary: After years of being uninterested in dating, Anastasia Steele, a nurse from Scotland, meets her perfect man at her best friend Kate's wedding. Christian Grey is charming and handsome – but he lives four and a half thousand miles away in Seattle. Their chemistry is undeniable and although it won't be easy, both quickly become determined to make it work despite the distance.
1. Chapter 1

For once, Anastasia had a good reason for being late. Usually she would just have overslept or her car had failed to start for the millionth time or she was running behind on something at the hospital where she worked and had forgotten plans she had promised to keep, but this time she was attending her friend Kate's bachelorette party and her flight had been delayed by two hours. Being the maid of honour to a girl who lived over four thousand miles away had been a challenge so far, one that had meant she was forced to skip most of the important events so far or Skype so that she was at least virtually present, but it was less than a week until the wedding now and she was hoping to make up for lost time.

She had barely had time to stop off at her hotel – she was going to have to talk to Kate about it, she'd agreed to let her pay but she had meant for Kate to put her up in the cheapest place she could, not some five star suite which was bigger than her house.

Ana applied just enough make up to look presentable

"You really didn't have to come, Ana." Kate told her for the thousandth time as she stood in her best friend's apartment for the first time ever. As Ana had spectre it was decorated tastefully, mostly done in monochrome with pops of colour which had been how Kate had decorated the flat they'd shared for nearly three years. "You just got off an eleven hour flight, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to go back to the hotel."

"No way! Ana insisted. Despite having grown up in the Highlands of Scotland, it was an Edinburg accent that she spoke with, influenced by her parents both coming from the city and developed when she had spent her three university years there where she had met Kate who had wanted to escape to a British university instead of going to college. "All my times being devoted to you now, I slept on the flight and I'll stay awake until Saturday if you need me to. I'm making up for everything I haven't been able to do."

"In that case I want to introduce you to Elliot!" Kate exclaimed clasping Ana's hand tightly and leading her over, tapping the man that Ana assumed was her fiancé on the shoulder. He wrapped an arm around Kate as he turned around and grinned at Ana.

"The elusive maid of honour joins us at last!" Elliot reached out to shake her hand. He was definitely handsome enough for Kate, and could foresee the pair of them creating some very attractive children together. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last, Kate's told me a lot about you." Ana raised her eyebrows. She doubted very much Kate had told Elliot many of the details of their friendship when they had shared a flat, especially details about trips to Newcastle that Ana was sure Kate would be sensible enough not to tell a man she was planning to marry like the night she'd had a threesome in the bathroom of a nightclub or the night she'd slapped a girl in an alley because she was eyeing up the same barman that Kate was. Hopefully now she was getting married such incidents were firmly in the past for Kate.

"Good things I hope."

"Exclusively." Kate assured her. Kate didn't have any bad things to tell about Ana anyway, she'd never been as wild as Kate had. She had tended to drink her way through nights while Kate had flirted. Ana woke up with hangovers while Kate woke up needing the morning after pill.

"Are fiancés supposed to be at the bachelorette party?" Ana asked teasingly. They looked so happy together Ana imagined they never spent any significant time apart.

"Not really, we decided to just do a join bachelor and bachelorette party. Neither of us really cared about that whole last night of freedom thing." Elliot explained. Ana didn't comment that the reason Kate didn't care about having one was because she'd had enough for three lifetimes already, but she didn't, only smiled at them both.

"That's a really sweet idea." she assured them both.

"Would you like a drink, Ana?" Kate offered. She'd obviously been deemed a good enough actress that Kate could leave her alone with Elliot.

"Any sort of whiskey and coke, heavy on the whiskey." Kate mouthed her drink order along when Ana said it, she was used to either fetching it or ordering it for Ana at bars. Kate went off to get what Ana wanted and Elliot shook his head.

"She thinks I don't know how crazy you two used to be." Elliot said fondly, like he though it was adorable of her. "Her old Facebook isn't private,mor it wasn't when I met her anyway." Ana nearly physically recoiled, after they'd finished university together

"And you don't mind?"

"Of course not. Her past doesn't matter, she was young and she's different now she's settled in a relationship. Besides, I used to be crazy too so it would be pretty hypocritical of me to judge her." Elliot told her. Ana smiled – she was liking Elliot a lot so far and she had pretty high standards for liking the men in her friends lives.

"You should tell her that you know." Ana advised, not that she was exactly an expert when it came to relationships, but honesty was important, right?

"I know, but I don't want to force her into talking about something she doesn't want to. I don't want her to feel like I'm attacking her." Elliot was scoring top marks for everything he was saying at the moment, that was for sure. Ana was delighted that Kate had found someone so accepting who made her happy and seemed so completely enamoured with her. She'd never had experience of Kate's taste in a man who would last in her life longer than a couple of nights at the most so it was reassuring that she had picked someone so great to spend her life with.

"I was worried, you know, with being far away that she might have picked someone shit to marry. You're much nicer than I expected." Ana was always brutally honest, luckily Elliot took it well and laughed instead of being offended.

"I'm very glad you approve. She's been worried since I asked her that you wouldn't like me."

"Kate's got a lot of experience with me not liking the significant others of our friends… I have high standards on their behalf. She was exactly the same… We both used to say you're not a true friend if you don't hate at least one boyfriend and annoy them into breaking up with them. Our friend Dana was the worst, she picked these awful guys and got so annoyed with us when we told her how bad they were. Kate used to just write lists and send them to her anonymously and she knew Kate was doing it but she couldn't prove it and that annoyed her even more. We were really bitchy nineteen years olds. She married a guy about a year ago, month after that he got sent to prison for embezzlement. We did try to warn her."

"And you were worried I was going to be like that?" Elliot asked. Ana looked down at the ground, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, I had only ever seen you for thirty seconds on Skype. It's hard to make a judgement of someone when the most you've ever said to them is hello before your best friend told them she was too busy to talk to them." Ana explained, slightly relieved when she saw Kate coming back with her drink. "Thank you!" she said as Kate passed her the glass.

"No problem. Elliot, Christian's here."

"Great, I'll be back in a minute." Elliot said as he walked off in the direction of their kitchen.

"Who's Christian?" Ana asked Kate,

"Just Elliot's younger brother, he's the best man. I'm sure Elliot will introduce you… Just a warning, he can be slightly stand-offish so don't take it personally, it's just how he is. I don't think he likes me very much, he has a thing about journalists so he might not like you by association. That's him with Elliot." Kate nodded, indication to Ana's left and she tried to turn discretely. Ana felt herself blushing just looking at him – he had to be the most attractive man she'd ever seen in person. She forced herself to look away, although it wasn't for long when Elliot brought him over.

"Ana, this is my brother Christian, Christian this is Kate's maid of honour Anastasia." Elliot introduced them before he excused himself and Kate to say hello to his parents. He definitely lost points in Ana's eyes for leaving her stood awkwardly with his ridiculously good looking brother. Christian gave her a polite nod and extended his hand which she shook very tentatively.

"It's nice to meet you." Ana felt compelled to say when he remained silent.

"Is your accent Scottish, Anastasia?" he asked. She nodded, quite impressed. A lot of people guessed Irish first if they weren't familiar with the accent. "So, when did you move over here?"

"Oh no, I don't live here. I'm just over for the wedding. I live in the Highlands so I couldn't really afford to come out before this… You must have thought I was a just a bit of a shit best woman if you didn't realise I didn't live here, not going to any of the stuff other than this…" Ana mused. Maybe he just hadn't noticed that there wasn't a maid of honour there.

"Best woman?" he asked, hint of amusement on his face.

"It's a joke me and Kate have. I was annoyed someone got the title of best man but I didn't get to be the best woman. Maid of honour is, as titles go, pretty rubbish, so Kate said it could be my unofficial title as long as I didn't let it get to my head." It wasn't that funny saying it out loud but she and Kate had thought it was hilarious, but that might have been the wine they were drinking constantly while they'd spoken for three hours.

"Of course. What is it that you do?"

"I'm a nurse. There's not much else to do where I'm from, we're pretty much out in the middle of nowhere so if you want to stay local either you go into something medical, become a teacher or run a shop. There was a load of people when I was little who'd try and commute to Inverness but it's a two hour drive near enough and half the roads become impassable when it snows which is quite a lot in the winter so that stopped. Most people just move away when they get old enough."

"And you've never thought about moving somewhere a little less remote?" he asked. Most people didn't understand why she wouldn't move to a city but Ana liked her small little town, knowing everyone's names and her easy workload.

"Fuck no. Well, not recently. I went away for university but I came back as soon as I could. I like being a little out of the way and my mum left me the house so I couldn't bear to sell it and I wouldn't have the money to move away if I didn't."

"I see." Christian, she had to say, was annoyingly good at keeping his emotions in check. She couldn't get a read on him at all no matter what he was saying which was irritating because she knew for a fact she had an incredibly expressive face and he could probably tell everything that crossed her mind if he cared to pay attention, which in all honesty he probably didn't. He spotted someone across the room and as Ana saw it was a young, pretty girl she felt her stomach lurch a little. She told herself off – he hadn't shown the slightest spark of interest in her and just because he was a bit attractive she was upset at the idea of him being in a relationship. Pathetic. When she went home it was definitely time to get a boyfriend if this was how attached she was to a good looking stranger. "If you'll excuse me, that's my sister Mia, I need to go and say hello. She's been in Paris for the last year." Ana would be lying if she said there wasn't some relief – not because she wanted him, although she definitely wouldn't have said no, just because she'd feel a bit guilty looking so lustfully at someone else's boyfriend.

"He's the only member of Elliot's family that I haven't been able to charm. Everyone else loves me." Kate said with a sigh as she walked back over and caught Ana's glance resting on Christian. She hadn't realised she was staring and made herself look away and up to Kate. "No use pining over him, Ana. Elliot reckons he's gay." Well that was even worse than him already having a girlfriend. "He's never said, Elliot's just never seen him date a woman." At least it wasn't confirmed.

"I'm not pining over him." Ana lied. Kate ignored her completely, probably aware that she wasn't telling the truth.

"Well, I forbid you from going near him anyway." Kate said firmly. Ana looked at her questioningly – Kate had never told her what guys she could go near before and she felt annoyed that she was trying to now before she saw that Kate was smiling and clearly making a joke. "I told you, I want a cliché free wedding. No conga line, no over-used first dance song, and most definitely no maid of honour hooking up with the best man."

"I don't hook up with people Kate, you know that. Queen of the virgins, remember?" That was the title Kate had given her at university. Once it had bothered her, now she wore it with pride, although it was a bit pathetic to be a virgin attending her best friend's wedding. Kate had already had so many more experiences than Ana that she was ready to stop having them and settle down – although Ana was pretty sure she only wanted to have sex once she was in an actual relationship. She definitely couldn't face being as promiscuous as Kate once had been.

"Well then, that's fine." Kate decided. Usually she would have argued the case of making her own decisions a little more but it was Kate's wedding, if Kate was ever allowed to be bossy this was definitely the time for it.

Still, she found herself casting another glance over to Christian. Maybe she didn't hook up and maybe he hadn't seemed particularly interested in her but as he caught he looking and smiled, trying not to blush, Ana decided that admiring him from afar for the next week was perfectly fine. And, if he happened to want to talk to her again, maybe even flirt a little, who was she to stop him?


	2. Chapter 2

At first, Ana had wondered what kind of a party this would actually be given that Elliot's parents had made an appearance. Even with limited knowledge being that this was the first she'd ever attended, Ana was pretty sure that parents weren't supposed to be at a bachelorette party, even if Kate was doing it jointly with her fiancé. However, when it got to about half past nine they left, Elliot's sister dimmed the lights and a lot more of Kate's friends turned up, including the rest of the bridal party.

Ana immediately liked the other bridesmaids who mixed drinks as strongly as Kate did and filled Ana in with anecdotes about all the pre-wedding events she'd missed without judging her for not being there. Holly and Jasmine, two redheads with hazel eyes that Ana couldn't work out whether they were related or not, managed to stay in her good books all evening. Laura, who had long straight black hair down to her waist and bright green eyes fell out of her favour when Ana saw her trying to sidle up to Christian at one point. It didn't matter that she hadn't spoken to him since Elliot had introduced them, mentally Ana definitely had dibs. At least he looked annoyed that she came over and she quickly came back and tried to act like it hadn't happened. Ana forgave her when she tried the same thing with more success later on a friend of Elliot's who she disappeared into the bathroom with for a long time.

Christian, she had noticed, had been stood with Elliot most of the night, or by himself when his brother went elsewhere, clearly not enjoying himself. Several times she considered going over but she didn't want to bother him.

Ana was mixing herself and the rest of the girls drinks when he came into the kitchen.

"Would you like one?" she offered when the silence became a bit too uncomfortable for her not to break it. He looked surprised that she had spoken; he probably hadn't even noticed she was in there until she did. Christian looked at the drinks and nodded.

"Just whiskey if you don't mind, Anastasia." She was so taken aback that he remembered her it that she didn't even correct the use of her full first name. Considering she'd always hated it, it sounded surprisingly okay coming out of his mouth, but anything would. Her friend Dana had always said that American accents weren't sexy… Ana was going to have to try and sneak a voice recording of him with his rich, velvety voice to play to her when she got back and prove her wrong.

"I'd have that but I don't know… Just whiskey seems antisocial at parties." She said as she passed the drink she had poured to him. His fingers brushed over hers as he took the glass and she tried not to blush at the minimal contact.

"Well, I'm already antisocial at parties so I figure I might as well just drink what I like." Ana laughed at his response.

"I don't think you've been too anti-social. Well, you haven't to me." she assured him.

"You're the first one of the people our age at one of these wedding events who's had anything interesting to say." Ana might have scoffed at how above everyone else he seemed to think he was but he was attractive so he was probably allowed and also she was too busy internally celebrating that he thought she had interesting things to say. "Elliot keeps being a pain in the arse about how I won't talk to either of their friends because I usually end up just talking to my parents and Kate's."

"It's a shame Kate's parent's didn't come actually, I'd have liked to see them."

"Have you met them before then?"

"Loads of times actually, they used to worry about Kate being so far away, flew out pretty frequently which was always good because they'd stock all the cupboards with loads of food and take us out to nice restaurants. They'd both always quite wanted another daughter so I was kind of their substitute. They got really close with my dad actually because he came down a lot, you know, making up for the fact that mum didn't, and they started arranging to come at the same time, it was nice."

"Your mother never visited you at university?" Christian sounded genuinely shocked by that. She was a little dismayed that he picked up on that, despite being a generally open person, that question touched on a subject she was unwilling to broach with a near stranger.

"No, but I didn't mind." Ana didn't want to invite further inquisition. Even if she had been comfortable talking about her mother it was much too dark a subject for a party. Luckily before he could dig further into her purposefully vague answer, Holly bounded into the kitchen.

"How long does getting drinks take?" Holly was slurring her words and Ana smiled and nodded towards the drinks she had made on the counter. "Aww you're the best!" She gave Ana a kiss on the cheek which made her raise her eyebrows before she made an attempt to pick up all of the glasses. Ana went to help but Holly shook her head. "I got it. You stay here with Christopher." Holly gave a very obvious wink that made them both sigh. Neither bothered to correct the incorrect name she had used for Christian, they both sort of just wanted her to leave which she did, wobbling a little but keeping a pretty steady hold of the glasses.

"She's definitely going to drop one of them." Christian said as he watched Holly leaving the room.

"Well, I guess we'll know what's happened if we hear glass smashing and Kate screaming about her carpet." Ana said with a shrug.

"You can go and talk to them again, I won't be offended if you're bored."

"I'm okay here. I mean, unless… Do you want me to leave you alone? Because you can just say. I won't mind." she assured him. Of course he was bored of her company, she was hardly an interesting person. She should have just left him alone.

"No, no, that wasn't what I meant." Christian said quickly. He looked almost panicked by the idea that she thought he wanted her to leave.

"I'll stay then." she said with resolve and the smile that passed across his face didn't escape her notice.

They talked for a long time, enough time that they were interrupted on a number of occasions by people saying goodbye to Ana that she had met earlier in the evening, long enough that Ana had stopped keeping count of how many times she had filled her glass up and long enough that she was unsteady on her legs and slipped off the kitchen counter when she had decided to try and sit on it – nothing was bruised but her ego, she was happy to report, for once not having caused injury to herself.

She'd been fine when she was constantly talking but when Elliot came in to have a word with Christian about some concerns over their sister's new boyfriend Ana started feeling really drowsy and light-headed. She definitely needed to go home which is exactly what she started doing, simply walking out of Kate's apartment. She was unsteady, enough that she went over on the heels that were too high for her to walk in sober. Right as she was sure she was about to go tumbling down the stairs she felt arms around her waist and looked up to see Christian.

"Fucking hell, you could have broken your neck! Where the fuck were you even going, all your stuff is still inside?" Christian was shouting at her, probably because she'd scared him. She'd scared herself too and his tone plus the realisation that she'd broken the thin heel of her shoe completely made her burst into tears. He looked quite disturbed by the intense reaction that she was having but dutifully sat her down on the top step and tentatively put an arm around her.

"Sorry. I'm such an emotional drunk." She managed to say around soft little sobbing hiccups. She looked up at him and saw him trying to look sympathetic even though he clearly wanted to laugh at her. "Kate used to hate it, she'd be trying to get off with some boy and I'd be crying about a scene from a film I watched weeks before." Ana went quiet for a couple of seconds. "Can we go somewhere that's not spinning, I don't think I like spinning rooms." At that, Christian actually did laugh a little. Ana tried to formulate a response but when she thought too much the spinning felt much faster so she tried to clear her mind and close her eyes instead.

"It's not spinning, Ana, your brain is just swimming in whiskey. I'd better get you home, I'll just text my driver – which hotel are you staying at?"

"Can't remember." Ana said after a moment of contemplation. "Oh my god, I'm going to have to sleep on the streets all night!" she exclaimed, nearly bursting into tears again.

"Don't cry, it's fine, I'll go inside and collect all your stuff and I'll ask Kate, she'll know, won't she?" Ana nodded miserably. "And if she doesn't then she and Elliot have a spare room, I'm sure she'll let you stay here, you don't have to worry." Christian got up and immediately she missed him having his arm around her. "I'll be back in five minutes, okay, don't move." He was probably worried she was going to roll down the stairs which, she had to admit, was actually quite a likely scenario. He came back much sooner than five minutes later, obviously not trusting her to be left alone. "Okay Kate's blind drunk too so she's got no idea what your hotel is called and it looks like the rest of her bridesmaids are crashing in the guest room and on her sofa." Ana felt like she was going to cry again which Christian saw. "Fuck, please stop nearly crying, it's all okay, if you want I could take you home with me and you can sleep this off in my guest room, does that sound good?"

"You're so nice." Ana said, nearly crying again from the thought of how sweet he was being to her even though she knew she was being ridiculous. She was drunk enough to act stupid but not drunk enough to not realise she was doing it. She just couldn't help herself.

"I think you might be the only person that's ever said that. Come on, let me help you up, Taylor's outside."

"I can't believe you have a driver." Ana mused as he pulled her up and put an arm around her waist to steady her. The room was spinning even more now she was standing up and she wanted to go back to sitting. "Who has a bloody driver?"

"He's not really a driver, he's actually part of my security team. He just sort of doubles up."

"Well that's even crazier! Who needs a security team? Are you a spy?"

"I wouldn't be a very good spy if I had a security team following me around. It would hardly be very inconspicuous." Christian pointed out. Ana had to admit he was right. "I told you earlier that I own businesses." She wasn't drunk enough to have forgotten but where she was from 'owning a business' meant you ran one of the local restaurants or cafes, and they definitely didn't need a bodyguard for that. She was realising that Christian's business was probably a little more than what she was used to. "I like that you have no idea who I am. It's refreshing." Clearly Christian was a big deal here and there were more reasons for her to be intimidated by him that just how attractive he was. She was glad she hadn't realised that earlier so she hadn't come across as a total moron. She was going to respond, though she wasn't sure how, when they were suddenly outside and she shivered immediately.

"It's freezing!" she complained. At least the cold was making her a bit more alert, she felt instantly less dizzy than she had inside.

"The car's right here." Christian assured her. His bodyguard got out of the car when he saw them approaching and opened the door to the back seats for them. "This is Anastasia, she has forgotten where she's staying so she'll be making use of one of the guest rooms tonight. Please drive carefully, she's had rather a lot to drink and I'd rather she didn't vomit in the back of my car." he said to him. She caught the amused look he was sharing with Taylor and pouted.

"Stop making fun of me! I've never been sick when I'm drunk anyway."

The drive was fairly quick, luckily. As instructed, Taylor drove cautiously but it didn't stop Ana's stomach from lurching every time they turned a corner. She was very relieved when the car was eventually parked, although the long ride in the lift up to his flat was even worse than the car.

"Oh my god, your flat is enormous!" Ana exclaimed as they walked inside Christian's home. Everything was so white; she was relieved again she wasn't the kind of drunk who vomited.

"I'll show you round tomorrow." Christian promised. "I would now but I don't think you'd be able to stand for long enough." It was both a dig at her and a brag about how large his flat was, and it earned him a scowl from her which he smirked at. "Come on, I'll show you up to one of the guest rooms." Another subtle brag. She wondered if he realised he was doing it.

"You didn't have to let me stay, you know." Ana reminded him as they were walking.

"Well, it's far too late to rescind the offer now." She wasn't sure if he was joking or not. He had been hard to read when she was sober, now it was near impossible. "Besides, this is a good way to prove to Elliot that I am making a conscious effort to be sociable at his wedding events." Ana rolled her eyes.

"I don't think you care about that. You're just doing it because you're nice."

"I promise you, Anastasia, I am many things but nice certainly isn't one of them." Again, she couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. She wished he was more aware that nuance was lost on her currently. "You can sleep in here." he said as he opened a door to the largest bedroom she'd ever been in. "There's some things of Mia's in the drawer under the wardrobe, you can borrow something to sleep in. I'm going to get you some water so you don't get dehydrated."

"See, you are nice." Ana teased him. He shook his head and walked out of the room and Ana dug through the drawer until she found a comfy t-shirt and sweatpants she could happily sleep in and wandered into the ensuite to get changed. She heard Christian come back in just a moment before she left the bathroom and took the water he offered to her, hoping it would help soothe the hangover she knew was looming.

"I really don't think I've been this hammered since uni." Ana admitted. "I think I'm supposed to make better choices now I have a proper job."

"I have to agree with that. You shouldn't get so drunk that you nearly injure yourself." She was initially slightly annoyed that someone she had only known the span of one evening was lecturing her but remembering that he had saved her from falling down the stairs and seriously injuring herself so if anyone was allowed to lecture her, he probably was.

"Am I getting a telling off tomorrow morning?" Ana asked, half amused as she lay down on the bed and sighed at the beautifully soft sheets.

"Definitely." He reminded her of how her mum had dealt with her being drunk – looking after her when she came home barely able to stand and then the earful about responsible choices in the morning. It was the second time Ana had thought about her that night and she felt suddenly overwhelmed by grief.

"I miss my mum…" Ana mumbled out miserably as she curled up on the bed. She knew she felt Christian sitting on the bed next to her but she wasn't sure if he was actually stroking a hand through her hair soothingly or if she was just imagining it. Christian didn't say anything for a while but she felt herself drifting off before he got up to leave the room. "Thanks for looking after me." It was whispered and she didn't know if he heard but she really hoped he had.

"Get some rest, Anastasia." he said as he left the room and she was asleep moments later.


End file.
